Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Missing Ukrainian lensman found dead

The 40-year-old photojournalist was a prominent freelancer who had spent years covering the conflict in Ukraine

Representational image : Shutterstock

Megan Specia   |   TT  |   03.04.22  :  A Ukrainian photojournalist who went missing over two weeks ago while documenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine near the capital, Kyiv, has been found dead, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

The photojournalist, Maks Levin, 40, was a prominent freelancer who had spent years covering the conflict in Ukraine. There had been fears for his safety after he and a colleague went missing in mid-March while reporting near the front line of Russian fighting in the Vyshhorod area.

His body was found in a village in the Vyshhorod district north of Kyiv on Friday, according to the Institute of Mass Information, a Ukrainian civil society organisation focused on press freedom. He is survived by his wife, four sons and his parents.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that based on preliminary information, Levin was shot by Russian armed forces with “small arms fire”.

The colleague Levin had been travelling with, Oleksiy Chernyshov, has not been found. Days before his disappearance, Levin had posted a series of images on his Facebook page showing the mass evacuation of residents, many of them draped in white cloth to signal their civilian status.

New York Times News Service